146 JOHN T. HALSEY 



was to the possession of this property that the claimed therapeutic effects 

 of spermin in so large a variety of diseases was attributed by Poehl, who 

 was a disciple of the school which saw in autointoxication the main feature 

 of many diseases. 



The exaggerated claims so generally made as to the value of testicular 

 therapy have brought it into disrepute, so that in recent literature there 

 are to be found but few reports of its employment, but from conversation 

 with physicians and reports from druggists it is evident that testicular 

 preparations, usually in combination with other products, are still fre- 

 quently prescribed. Of the more recent reports of favorable results from 

 its employment those of Bloch and Sharff appear worthy of notice, as 

 they are fairly typical in the claims made and also in the unsatisfactory 

 character of the clinical data. Bloch (a) (b) (c) has made use of testogan, 

 a preparation by the use of which he has sought to combine the prompt 

 aphrodisiac action of yohimbin with the slower "central erotizing" action 

 of testicular extract. In cases of his own and those reported to him by a 

 number of others, he has reported such results as follows : In a 36-year-old 

 officer with bisexual characteristics and sexual perversion, forty injections 

 of 1.0 c.cm. each and 80 tablets restored libido and potentia and caused the 

 crines to become of a masculine type; 80 capsules caused a, metamorphosis 

 of a youth of 15 years with undeveloped genitalia and feminine attributes; 

 in all but eleven of fifty cases of impotence (apparently functional or 

 psychic), oral or subcutaneous administration, or a combination of the 

 two, brought about a partial or complete return of libido and potentia; 

 restoration of potentia even when the result of loss or atrophy of the 

 testicles; great improvement in cases suffering from sexual neuroses or 

 neurasthenia. From injections of testiculin, 50 Sharff obtained no results 

 of any moment in one prostatic case, and subjective improvement of 

 prostatic symptoms and improvement in strength in another. In several 

 neurasthenics with sexual features he found it beneficial. (One of these 

 was a woman !) Ho concluded that it was an Excellent tonic and analep- 

 ticum," but the clinical data presented by him are not such as to compel 

 acceptance of his claims. Ludlum and Corson-White, who believed that 

 the testicle is antagonistic to the pituitary, have reported that injection 

 of Brown-Sequard's fluid was followed by cure in four insane patients, 

 who presented signs of hyperpituitarism, but with so little detail that 

 the report is almost (if not quite) without value. 



From consideration of the available data I am of the opinion that the 

 evidence that testicular products are of therapeutic value is at best merely 

 suggestive. However, Zoth and Pregl's observations on their effect on 

 development of muscular power in man, and the demonstration by various 

 observers of their influence on development of secondary sexual character- 

 istics in animals furnish a basis for the hope that eventually it will be 



00 From the firm of Freund und Redlick. 



